Prudential Insurance Co. of America, struggling with sluggish revenue growth, posted an 82% gain in net income in 1998 that largely reflected a boost in capital gains from sales of real-estate and bond-portfolio holdings.

Revenue for Prudential, excluding health-care operations that it recently agreed to sell, rose a slim 2.3% to $27.1 billion from $26.5 billion in 1997. U.S. individual life-insurance revenue was "essentially...